Picture du Jour: U.S. at risk of losing its AAA status?

While the debate about the U.S. debt ceiling is taking place, Société Générale ( via Business Insider – Clusterstock) is of the opinion that a downgrading of the country’s sovereign debt is just a matter of when and how fast interest rates on its borrowings rise. “Assuming the Bush tax cuts are extended, a 200 basis-point hike in interest rates would push the U.S. into AA territory before the end of 2011. A 50 bp hike would see the U.S. there by 2014,” said the report.